More than a museum, we are a campus of four buildings each with something special for visitors to enjoy. There is an exhibit to lure the romantics at heart - Vintage Wedding Dresses. Next, a working blacksmith demonstrates his trade. For the art enthusiasts, there are works from two nationally recognized artists. Our newest exhibit is a collection of WWI memorabilia. Lastly, since Barrington was the national headquarters for the Jewel Tea Co., we have a whole building dedicated to that collection including Autumn Leaf china and items from Mary Dunbar's kitchen.
“Barrington History Museum pulled out all the stops. I met with them in the Spring to do a site visit with Linda Brown and Michael. We discussed what I needed for my group of seniors and they took the ball and ran with it. They had organized that we split my group into two. One group stayed on the motorcoach for a Tour of Barrington with Michael as the Tour Guide. His knowledge was unbelievable as well as the amount of information. We went through gorgeous historic neighborhoods that we would not ever drive through on our own.
Then the 2nd group was split into two groups and there were docents as each station. School House, Jewel, Antique Wedding Dresses, the Art Exhibit/toys/World War exhibit, Blacksmith actually showing us how to make a few items, etc. They even had two tough taskmasters who kept time and cut the docents off. It was a well-oiled machine.
In fact, they even had a room with refreshments: lemonade, soft drinks, coffee, and extremely fresh and delicious chocolate chip cookies from Jewel (to go along with the Jewel exhibit theme) you could swear that they just came out of the oven.
The only complaint I had was that they would have like to have spent more time. I would not change a thing / timing or anything else.” -Destinations by Nadine
Hours of Operation
Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat.: 1-5 p.m.
Weekdays by appt.
